At a Democratic National Convention where the overriding theme is that President Obama has been victimized by heartless, uncompromising bully Republicans (reason enough to return him to office), it should come as no surprise that last night activist Sandra Fluke would add another layer of paint to her self-portrait of resident martyr in the “war on women.”
The former Georgetown Law student insisted she had been “silenced,” a reference to a refusal of a House hearing to allow Democrats at the last minute to substitute Fluke on a panel that was discussing the Obama mandate that religious institutions and individuals of conscience pay for health insurance plans that cover medical procedures and drugs contrary to their religious beliefs and consciences, including contraceptives. In the months since the February 16 hearing, Fluke has become a heroine to pro-abortion Democrats, speaking from one end of the country to another.
Not content to mischaracterize the hearing and her role in it, she grotesquely misrepresented pro-life GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan as having “co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms.” It does nothing of the sort, but the audience loved it.
In her narrative, Fluke lambasted laws that mandate ultrasounds—“An America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds we don’t want and our doctors say we don’t need.” This is the standard pro-abortion talking point, which conveniently ignores that virtually all abortionists already performed ultrasounds.
Fluke was preceded to the podium earlier in the day by Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood who told the Democratic National Convention, “I am proud tonight to support the re-election of President Barack Obama!” While hardly a surprise—PPFA’s political arm endorsed Obama in 2008 and has been a party in many important controversies, including the Obama mandate—Richards made it clear re-electing Obama is the highest priority.
“Mitt Romney is campaigning to get rid of Planned Parenthood and overturn Roe v. Wade,” she said. As the fact checkers might say, “Three Pinocchios.” It is quite true that Romney believes Roe should be reversed “because it is bad law and bad medicine. Roe was a misguided ruling that was the result of a small group of activist federal judges legislating from the bench.”
But it is decidedly not true that Romney wishes to “get rid” of PPFA. He wants federal funding stopped for the nation’s biggest provider of abortions, over 332,000 each year.
Ironically, the “war” imagery is right, but in a far different sense meant by Sandra Fluke and Cecile Richards. What has been the first casualty in the Abortion Establishment attack on Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan? Truth.
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Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
